The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-08-18
THE STORY OF LORD FORTH.

His EatueT'S DlBSEaC6-Ino nuaTElaS0 Will
Miss Capel and Her Wretched Death.
New York ord.
At the time of the death in this city of young
George Drummond grandson and heir to the
title of the Earl of Perth and Mefort reference
was made to the death OF his mother. the Wis
countess Forth. in great misery and restitution
at Lima, Peru. In the Worlds cable dispatches
of Aug. it was said of the old peer that his
life has been an exceedingly unhappy one. 1t
has been one long succession of domestic scan
das. and of useless litigation to recover the
Drummond estates. There was a painful scan
dial connected with the married life and death
of his only son, Viscount Forth father of Lord
Drummond. It is sufficient to say that the late
Lord Drummond was removed from his moth
ers care some time before his fathers death,
and that he never saw her again. She died in
miserable circumstances in 1868, utterly
trauged from her husbands family and her own
by reason of the scandal she had given rise to.
The ST. Louis Spectator gives the following
account of this scandal, which is briefly referred
to in Burke's Peerage. ard which seems TO have
made the young fellow obnoxious even from his
birth to his family on both the paternai and ma
ternal side:
The Lord Drummond tlord by courtesy who
died in New York last week was born in Sep
TENDER, 1856 and was reputedly the son of Lord
Forth, who in his turn, was the eldest son and
heir OF the Earl of Perth. who, born in 1907,
still lives. The earldom of Perth dates from
1905, that of Welfort (the second title) from
1856. but old as are both creations the revenues
of the old Earl have gradually dwindled away
until at last he is little better than pauper him
years past il almost entire obscurity in London.
Much of his poverty is due to the late Lord
Forths extravaganza.
Thirty three years ago the Goth of next month
the English and French armies were drawn up
in front of the little river Alma and preparing
to advance to the stormug of the heights on it's
other side. Part of the English army was the
Duke of Cambridge's division, which consisted
of brigades of Foot Guards and HiGhanders and
two field batteries. Among the ''ensigns and
lieutenauts" who carried the Queens colors of
the battallons of the Guards was Lord Forth,
an Apollo in shape. a favorite with man and
woman and the hope of his can and his proud
father, the Earl The division was not much
used in the battle, and at the end Of the day was
found not to have been half as severely handled
by the Russians as many single battalions of the
line-notably the Seventh Fusileers and the
Royal Welsh-out as it (almost in reserve) was
climbing the steep one of the first to fall was
Lord Forth. At the end of the day, when the
stretcher- bearers were gathering the dead and
wounded, his lordshlp was found curled up
under a very protecting scarp, utterly untouched
by bullet, shot or splinter of she'll
When assured that the action was entirely
his story of the wind of shot met with no be-
levers It would never do to court-martial an
officer of the Guards for cowardice-so thought
the rest of the officers OF his brigade-but his
commission was called for at once was promptly
resigned and home was my lord sent next day.
Arrived in England his clubs knew him more
his father would not see him. society spurned him.
and he was everywhere an ourcast of the white
feather
Early in 1856 the young Miss Capel dazZled
the London world with her beauty. Rather dis
family connected with Lord Essex. her parents
were as poor as church mice. but hoping to rise
above water through big match for their
daughter they scraped enough together for
season in London, where they took very UMPIRE
tentious lodgings in Brompton Crescent, just off
the Brompton road. Queerish stories of f1irta-
tons in the country and at minor watering
places accompanied Miss Cape, who certainly
seemed quite able to take of herself, if it
might not be even further said that she
most undeniably shorn of the simplicity of
debutante. Still she was beautiful enough to
become the rage. and people were, therefore, all
the more astonished when it was learned that
she was engaged to so thoroughly ostracized an
individual as Lord Forth.
Sneered at he was everywhere. Lord Forth,
however, could not be considered a detrimental.
He was sure, il he lived, to come into an ancient
earldom, of which the income then was quite
600 900 a year. He was handsome god and
until the Guards had sailed for Varna he had
been considered irresistible to every girl in
London.
My informant, then a Woolwich cadet, called
on the Capels the morning in April or May,
1856 that Miss Capel was to be presented to tho
Queen, at a drawing room. on purpose to see her
in court costume. Lady Essex for that special
function. took charge of her relative. who was
simply bewitchine in court dress. Lord Forth
ito whom court was of course. barredl be-
side her on a sofa in the little Brompton Cres-
cent drawing room, and the two were a perfect
study of beauty. They were married very shortly